The Family and Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act, introduced today by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), will "grant families access to the paid leave they so desperately need" and "improve job security for all families who have to choose between caring for a family member and a paycheck at times of greatest stress," says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in a statement.

Four county commissioners in Orange County, Fla., told more than 50,000 voters there that their voices don’t count. By a 4-3 margin Tuesday, the Orange County Commission voted to keep a paid sick leave initiative off the November ballot by requiring further review of the proposal, even though the petition for the ballot measure had been signed by more than 50,000 people and certified. Moving in the right direction, a three-judge panel ruled Friday that Mayor Teresa Jacobs has until Sunday, Sept. 16 at 3:30 p.m. to explain why the Earned Sick Time campaign’s emergency request for voters to be allowed to have their say should not be granted.

More and more families depend on a woman’s paycheck to put food on the table and a roof overhead. We need decent wages and flexible workplaces with paid sick days and family leave. While Equal Pay Day is still fresh in our minds, let’s commit to getting involved in raising the standard of living for working women everywhere. Let’s build the movement for workplaces that support caregivers. Let’s start with Wal-Mart.

Today, nearly three-fourths of children live in homes where the adults who care for them work outside the home. Workers in jobs that have paid holidays and vacation time often cobble together those benefits in order to take care of a newborn or other family members. But low-wage workers whose employers don’t offer any paid leave, say the study’s authors, are at risk for falling out of the workforce and onto public assistance rolls when family members require their care.

Mariya Strauss, media coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association (ILCA), sent us this report.

Today’s jobs—especially in the hotel and restaurant industries—”don’t fit today’s workforce,” said Joan Williams, president of the Center for Worklife Law at the University of California/Hastings. Restaurants and hotels typically employ low-wage workers with “just-in-time” personal schedules, meaning the workers’ reliance on family members for child care and their need to care for elders who need medications at certain times often clash with their employers’ habits of scheduling them differently from week to week and day to day.